Go East Young Man

     'Where is your fire, your fireplace, your sacrificial ladle? Where the dried cowdung (used as fuel)? Without these things, what kind of priests can the monks be? What oblations do you offer to the fire?' (43)
     "Penance is my fire; life my fireplace; right exertion is my sacrificial ladle; the body the dried cowdung; Karman is my fuel; self-control, right exertion, and tranquility are the oblations, praised by the sages, which I offer." (44)
— From Uttarâdhyayana, Lecture XII, in Gaina Sutras, Vol. II, p. Hermann Jacobi (tr.), Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 49, F. Max Müller (gen. ed.)

     Abandoning the great distress to which the wordly are liable, the great delusion, and whatever causes fear, one should adopt the Law of monks, the vows, the virtues, and the (endurance of) calamities. (11)
     One should keep the five great vows, viz. not to kill, to speak the truth, not to steal, to be chaste, to have no property whatever; a wise man should follow the Law taught by the Ginas. (12)
     A monk should have compassion on all beings, should be of a forbearing character, should be restrained and chaste, and abstaining from everything sinful; he should live with his senses under control. (13)
— Ibid., Lecture XXI.

     4. And the Blessed One, perceiving that, on this occasion, pronounced this solemn utterance: 'Happy is the solitude of him who is full of joy, who has learnt the Truth, who sees (the Truth). Happy is freedom from malice in this world, (self-) restraint towards all beings that have life. Happy is freedom from lust in this world, getting beyond all desires; the putting away of that pride which comes from the thought "I am!" This truly is the highest happiness!'
— Mahavâgga, I, 3, 4, in Vinaya Texts, Vol. I, T. W. Rhys Davids/Hermann Oldenberg (trs.), in Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 13, F. Max Müller (gen. ed.), p. 81.

     17. And the Blessed One thus addressed the five Bhikkhus: 'There are two extremes, O Bhikkhus, which he who has given up the world, ought to avoid. What are these two extremes? A life given to pleasure, devoted to pleasures and lusts: this is degrading, sensual, vulgar, ignoble, and profitless; and a life given to mortifications: this is painful, ignoble, and profitless. By avoiding these two extremes, O Bhikkhus, the Tathâgata has gained the knowledge of the Middle Path which leads to insight, which leads to wisdom, which conduces to calm, to knowledge, to the Sambodhi, to Nirvâna.
     18. 'Which, O Bhikkhus, is this Middle Path the knowledge of which the Tathâgata has gained, which leads to insight, which leads to wisdom, which conduces to calm, to knowledge, to the Sambodhi, to Nirvâna? It is the holy eightfold Path, namely, Right Belief, Right Aspiration, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Means of Liveliness, Right Endeavor, Right Memory, Right Meditation. This, O Bhikkhus, is the Middle Path the knowledge of which the Tathâgata has gained, which leads to insight, which leads to wisdom, which conduces to calm, to knowledge, to the Sambodhi, to Nirvâna.
     19. 'This, O Bhikkus, is the Noble Truth of Suffering: Birth is suffering; decay is suffering; illness is suffering; death is suffering. Presence of objects we love, is suffering; not to obtain what we desire, is suffering. Briefly, the fivefold clinging to existence is suffering.
     20. 'This, O Bhikkus, is the Noble Truth of the Cause of suffering: Thirst, that leads to re-birth, accompanied by pleasure and lust, finding its delight here and there. (This thirst is threefold), namely, thirst for pleasure, thirst for existence, thirst for prosperity.
     21. 'This, O Bhikkus, is the Noble Truth of the Cessation of suffering: (it ceases with) the complete cessation of this thirst, — a cessation which consists in the absence of every passion, — with the abandoning of this thirst, with the doing away with it, with the deliverance from it, with the destruction of desire.
     22. 'This, O Bhikkus, is the Noble Truth of the  Path which leads to the cessation of suffering: that holy eightfold Path....
— Ibid., I, 6, 17-22, pp. 94-96.

     The case is that, by and large, we exist in a chronic emergency and that most of our forces of love and wit, anger and indignation, are repressed or dulled. Those who see more sharply, feel more intensely, and act more courageously, mainly waste themselves and are in pain, for it is impossible for anyone to be extremely happy until we are happy more generally. Yet if we get into contact with this terrible actuality, there exists in it also a creative possibility.
— Frederick Perls/ Ralph Hefferline/ Paul Goodman, Gestalt Therapy, p. 251.